


I designed this Rhyme

by voices_in_my_head



Series: Pitch by my Doorstep [1]
Category: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 times Linus surprises Rusty and 1 time he doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I designed this Rhyme

**Author's Note:**

> Rusty/Linus is a perfect pairing. Unfortunatly there is not enough love, I'm hoping to help you all get inspired. Also, does anybody know where I can find a copy of Drive by Jess ? I've heard it's awesome, but I can't find it anywhere. Please people, I need something big on these guys.

**1)**

Rusty is good at reading people. Probably even better than Danny, because once people do something to be in Danny’s good graces he stops watching them.

Rusty doesn’t. It’s not so much that he has trust issues, which he doesn’t (much), but by now it has become a habit.

He likes to believe that after a few minutes with a person he can practically tell you their whole life. How many times they have gotten their heart broken, if they ever did anything illegal, things like that.

When Danny told him that Bobby Caldwell told him to go meet Linus, Rusty wasn’t sure what he felt about it besides amusement at the kid’s name.

It wasn’t unusual for Bobby to turn down a job, not now that he had a family, anyway, but he usually didn’t give them names. Rusty was good at evaluating people, but Bobby was better, so he agreed with Danny to go check the kid out. Because once Rusty saw his picture all he could think was that he really was a kid, no matter the fact that he was almost thirty.

Danny met him alone. Rusty preferred to only meet the people who he would work with.

The moment he met the younger man, he knew that when he fell, he fell hard. He hadn’t been in prison, at least not for more than one night. But besides that he couldn’t tell much. The kid had an aura of innocence surrounding him and Rusty had been in the game for long enough to know that when people appeared so innocent they usually weren’t.

He only saw the truth of his words when Rusty was teaching the team how to use the guns, so they would actually appear to know what they were doing and Linus actually corrected him. Corrected. _Rusty._

All of them were silent while Linus told him what he was doing wrong and how to do it right.

Rusty himself wasn’t really listening, since the Queen of England could say he was doing it wrong, and he would keep doing it, but he was surprised that Bobby’s son knew not only how to work with guns, but to dismount and mount them.

That was the first time Linus Caldwell surprised him and he knew right away that it wouldn’t be the last.

**2)**

After the stunt with the guns Rusty paid more attention to the kid. He noted how when he was alone he dropped the innocent act. It wasn’t that he was mean or something, behind the mask. He was just… more adult. More like a con man.

Rusty really tried not to care, but found it was hard. Just one time he would like to meet a con man that still believed that the world was a good place.

The second time Linus surprised was by doing exactly that. Being a good man.

He and Linus are talking outside the Bellagio when a homeless guy passes through them and Linus stops talking, goes after the guy and hands him a couple of bills.

“You know he’s just going to use it to buy booze.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Linus answers and goes back to the conversation like nothing had happened and maybe for him it hadn’t.

This time at least Rusty can hide his surprise better.

**3)**

The only good thing Rusty’s father did for him was teach him how to play poker. Of course this was just so that he could con his friends, so Rusty doesn’t put too much value into it.

Still, his father was a good player and with a little training Rusty became even better.

There aren’t many people that can win at poker against him. Danny can, but that’s because he knows his poker face too well, but so does Rusty to his, so it’s okay.

All the guys are playing when Linus comes in from going to buy gum or something and Virgil asks him to join in, but he sees the smile he shares with Turk. Like Rusty and all the other guys they expect to see him loose.

Linus says yes but Rusty sees a flicker in his eyes, but it’s gone before he can figure out what it meant.

He finds out a couple of plays later. Linus is good at playing poker, like really good. He has one of the best poker faces Rusty has ever seen, and he has seen a lot.

He wins four games and Rusty is surprised, like all the other guys. This time he can’t mask his surprise, but neither can the other guys, except for Danny, who’s looking smug, and Rusty sends him a betrayed look. He just lost two grand. Danny could have warned him.

“That was for Mexico,” he says as way of explaining and no matter how much the other guys ask, they don’t explain.

**4)**

Rusty understands little habits. Everybody has them. Tess is always touching her hair, Danny his wedding band, even when it’s not there, Rusty is always eating something and Linus is always chewing gum.

He’s never been a big fan of gum, but he understands the need of having something in your mouth (no pun intended).

A week before the heist they’re in Reuben’s garden, talking and eating and suddenly Linus pulls out a cigarette, offers one to Basher, who he’s talking with, and they go back like it’s normal they talking over smoking.

Rusty is surprised. A lot of people on their branch smoke. Compared to what they could be doing, it’s really not that serious, but Rusty is still surprised.

He imagined Linus like the sort of man that was always discussing with you about health problems or animals rights.

At least one thing comes from all these discoveries: Rusty realizes he really doesn’t like surprises.

**5)**

There are things that Rusty never asks. One of them is a person’s sexuality. It’s not only because he really doesn’t care, or because he makes it a game to find out (he doesn’t do that anymore. Not after Danny.), but because people can never really be sure.

Rusty hasn’t slept with more than half a dozen guys, but he’s sure that if he doesn’t find the right woman in a couple of years then he will sleep with at least more half a dozen and he’s okay with it. Hey, maybe he won’t sleep with them because he’ll find the right guy.

Everybody who works with him knows that he doesn’t care who he sleeps with. They think the only reason he has never said “I’m bisexual” is because deep down he’s afraid of rejection. He might be, but he isn’t young enough to go into therapy to understand the reasons, and anyway, that isn’t the reason. He never came out directly because in his mind he has never been “in” to start with.

There aren’t many people that follow his philosophy, he knows.

The fact that Bobby’s Caldwell does is the most surprising thing ever. Two days before the heist they’re out in a bar (him, Danny and Linus) and the male bartender starts hitting on Linus. Linus answers right back and two hours later they’re leaving together.

The fact that Linus was attracted to guys wasn’t that big of a surprise. The fact that he didn’t hide it, was.

Maybe surprises aren’t all bad, Rusty concedes, and goes back to discussing the robbery with Danny.

**+1)**

Rusty knows that he has to find something to occupy him for the next three to six months that doesn’t involve any robbery or he’ll go crazy, and be captured by Benedict.

He stays with Tess for some days, and maybe it’s not completely awkward, but there are moments and Rusty preserves their friendship too much to endanger it.

He leaves and goes to visit Saul. That only lasts a couple of minutes before he’s being thrown out.

He stops by Livingston but that also doesn’t last more than a day. Doesn’t last more than two hours with the Malloy twins.

He stays with Frank for two days and with Basher for almost a week until he finally decides to go see the last of the group.

(He calls Reuben but he isn’t stupid enough to put his feet on Benedict’s playground.)

Chicago has never been he’s favorite city and he’s pretty sure it’ll never be, so he tells himself that’s the reason he hasn’t gone to see Linus earlier.

Linus isn’t the least surprise when he walks in and sees Rusty on his couch eating French fries.

He doesn’t ask why he’s there or about any of the others, he just goes and takes Rusty fries and eats them.

They watch TV until they’re hungry and call for Chinese. Then they watch more TV and finally, after almost two hours of soap opera Linus kisses him. 

Rusty kisses back without second thinking, because this? This isn’t the least surprising and he’s okay with that. Surprises have always been overestimated, anyway.

 


End file.
